Tropicália: A Revolution in Brazilian Culture
October 7, 2006 - January 28, 2007

Tropicália is the first comprehensive exhibition to explore one of the most significant chapters in modern cultural history, a period beginning in the late 1960s when daring experiments in Brazilian art, music, film, architecture and theater converged—and ignited. Although suppressed by an increasingly oppressive military dictatorship, the moment produced a counterculture that has influenced successive generations of artists, even up to the present day.

The exhibition revisits this seminal time in Brazil through more than 250 objects. Highlighting major historical works from the 1967 New Brazilian Objectivity exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Tropicália features artists Lygia Clark, Antônio Dias, Nelson Leirner, Hélio Oiticica, and Lygia Pape, among others. Searching for their own identity, these artists were inspired by one of the founders of Brazilian modernism, Oswald de Andrade, and his concept of “cultural cannibalism.” They sought to liberate their art from traditional European forms and cultural hierarchies and a narrow cultural elite. As a result, they often embraced an aesthetic of informality, interactivity, and cultural hybridity.

The title of the exhibition is drawn from an installation created by the influential artist Hélio Oiticica in 1967, as well as from the 1968 pop record, featuring Gilberto Gil, Os Mutantes, Caetano Veloso, and others, which became one of the most celebrated albums in Brazilian music. The impact of this period in current Brazilian culture and contemporary art internationally is revealed through the inclusion of a younger generation of artists and musicians including Matthew Antezzo, assume vivid astro focus, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Arto Lindsay, Marepe, Ernesto Neto, Rivane Neuenschwander, and Karin Schneider, many of whom have created new works for the exhibition.

Listen to the Tropicália: A Revolution in Brazilian Culture Audio Tour

July 21, 2006 Press Release
Tropicália: A Revolution in Brazilian Culture Arrives in New York

Tropicália: A Revolution in Brazilian Culture is guest-curated by Carlos Basualdo, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and co-organized by The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and GabineteCultura, São Paolo. The international tour is sponsored by Altria Group, Inc.; and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Additional support is provided by Etant donnés: The French-American Fund for Contemporary Art. The Bronx Museum's presentation is made possible, in part, by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Special thanks to the Consulate General of Brazil in New York, Sean John, and 33^rd and Bird.

Image Credits:

Banner Image:
assume vivid astro focus
Baby, 2003
Floor sticker
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of John Connelly Presents, New York, and Peres Projects Los Angeles / Berlin

Center Image:
Hélio Oiticica
Tropicália (detail), 1967
Installation view, Tropicália: A Revolution in Brazilian Culture,
October 22, 2005 – January 8, 2006, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Copyright © Projeto Hélio Oiticica (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

Bottom image:
Rubens Gerchman
Cover for the album Tropicália ou Panis et Circencis, 1968
Offset print
11 13/16 x 11 13/16 inches
Collection Frederico Oliveira Coelho